In contrast to ‘The Sun’, ‘The Independent and ‘Daily Telegraph both have smaller e-fit pictures which are much smaller in scale compared to the tabloid report. The headlines are also smaller in font; they say ‘School is stunned by field trip tragedy and ‘Second girl is still missing as body is found in water’. Here we notice that in terms of layout and style the tabloids use a more effective way to present the headline than the Broadsheets.
Tabloids want the readers to relate to the articles; an example is the picture of the school student from ‘The Sun’ because the picture will catch anybody’s eye and make them reflect how dangerous the activity was and how this girl died.
Tabloids aim there newspapers at a socio-economic group C audiences. This type of audience would usually be categorised as less educated, so we will notice simpler text in the tabloid. Here is an example:
“What the hell were the teachers doing?”
The use of hell makes this very informal and emotive because the word ‘hell’ has connotations of something bad. This suggests that the audience of a lower education would find this language simple, whereas the broadsheets target socio economic group C+. The target audience of a broadsheet is around 30 upwards. Broadsheets commonly report on political, economic and worldwide subjects, therefore content will be understood by a more competent and sophisticated audience. Here is an example from ‘The Independent’:
“Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a teenage girl who was swept away while walking in a swollen river on a school residential trip.”
The wording is more formal with the use of words such as ‘investigating’ and ‘circumstances’, so the articles from the broadsheet are focused more at an audience which is capable, than the less capable tabloids audience.
The language in a tabloid is intended to make the article more effective. The first sentence of ‘The Sun’ shows the simple language used:
“David Bewley and other parents blasted there decision to allow the youngsters to wade through the fast flowing water.”
The use of the word ‘blasted’ is colloquial meaning it is simple. The emotive language such as ‘blasted’ allows the reader to relate to the anger of the parents in an emotional sense. There does not appear to be a great deal of technical jargon as this would not be suitable for the audiences reading capability, whereas the language found in broadsheets is intended to make the article more informative and not to play on the readers’ emotions. Broadsheets tend to have longer sentences on average; this again gives a sign that their reading audience is capable. Here is an example from ‘The Daily Telegraph’:
“There was a sombre mood as children arrived for lessons at Royds School in Oulton outside Leeds yesterday.”
The sentence gives an informative understanding as to how the school has reacted to the tragedy. Throughout the article I notice there is more technical jargon such as ‘Residentials and ‘risk assessment’. The use of technical jargon helps the reader understand the editorial better. There is barely any emotive language because the article is informative, so it is clear that the broadsheet uses more sophisticated language compared with the tabloids
The tabloids have a tendency to be biased, to cause emotion with the reader. We particularly find bias in ‘The Sun’. From the article we notice that The Sun’ is biased because it points the blame at the teachers:
“What were the teachers doing?”
This one line makes the whole incident seem as though it was the teachers fault. It also makes the teachers seem as though they were unworthy. This will make the reader feel resentment towards the teachers.
Due to broadsheets having a more informative approach, we will notice a less biased article which allows the reader to draw their own opinions and judgments. From the ‘The Independent’ and the ‘Daily Telegraph’ we see no opinions or biased language.
The article from ‘The Sun’ uses a sad and angry tone by using emotive language and opinions. However the articles from ‘The independent’ and ‘The Daily Telegraph’ have a more informative tone because they tell the article by facts:
“The body of a 14-year old Rochelle Cauvet was seen from a police helicopter at 9.30pm.”
This sentence gives the reader facts that can be proved: so the reader is given proper detail of the incident. The usage of data also makes this sentence factual.
From analysing the article from the broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. I can conclude that the articles are very different whether it is style, audience, language, and presentation. This is because both newspapers have different types of audiences. Tabloids use more emotional language to interest there readers, and broadsheets concentrate on informing the reader with facts. Tabloids having audiences which are less educated means they need stories they can relate to in some form. Broadsheets’ having a higher educated audience means they need stories that inform them in a proper way. Both newspapers still use images, but broadsheets have more dialogue and avoid using large images in their articles. From this article I can say that both newspapers have hit their desired audience.
